Doctors Appointment

Today, I took my first “half-day” off from work since the Spring, (and those days were time off to grieve mom and my sister-in-law.)  It is always so much work to take a day off.  Sub plans and preparation take so much time that it isn’t even worth it most of the time.  I came home from school and gave Emmy Lou a quick walk and sat down in front of the television with my lunch.  It was so quiet and peaceful in the house.  The reason for my half day was because I had a doctor’s appointment that  I could not reschedule for after school.  Just a “well-visit” as they were called for my kids.  A regular check up.

I haven’t been to the doctor since July. Before that July appointment, I had been suffering from daily headaches for 8 months and had gone to see a new doctor.  At that point, I already had two MRIs, seen several specialists and a neurologists but nothing had worked.  This new doctor and I discussed how I had been managing the headaches.  I had already tried all sorts of medications and natural remedies.  I went gluten free for a short time,  I had seen a chiropractor several times, but that only seemed to work short term, and once I left, the headaches returned.

At her suggestion, I stopped taking ALL pain medications for a trial basis of six weeks.  I also added magnesium to my already hefty vitamin and supplement regimen.  I stopped taking the birth control pill that I had been on. Something worked!!  I keep knocking on wood when I tell people!  I am now down to four or five headaches a month compared to the ones I had been having daily for so long.  I am like a different person.

In the process of finding this new doctor, I had given up on several others who had not been able to help me.  I was frustrated and needed answers.  In doing so, I needed to find a new endocrinologist as well.  I had been seeing one for about 8 years to monitor my thyroid and cholesterol.  I have been off of cholesterol medications for nearly a year now and have been able to keep it under control with (mostly) healthy eating.  My mom had several heart attacks before she died and my dad and brother have both had a quadruple bypass.  My brother was only 37 when he had his!  I try to keep on top of it because of that because genetics are not on my side!!

For now, rather than seeing several different doctors, I am going to stick with the one new one.  If she feels that I need to go back to a specialist, then of course I will, but she was so much help to me with my headaches, I am going to stick with her and she and I will monitor everything.  Since the doctors were all working independently of one another, there were too many inconsistencies and finding a practice where all of the doctors work with one another is going to work best for me.

We ended the checkup/conversation with a flu shot and a chat about this stomach bug that is going around.  I told her my story about the “throw up germ” in our school.  Her own children have the same thing going around their school but unfortunately, their school also has reported cases of…the always dreaded… LICE.  It made me ask her the question that a parent just asked me, “What is worse?  Lice or the stomach virus?”  I for one pick the stomach bug.  Quick, (in most cases) and cleanable.  Those little nits and bugs just hang on…and on…and on…..it makes me itch just to think about it!!

Tagged: daily headaches, doctor, Emmy Lou, flu shot, getting rid of a headache, headaches, lice, new doctor, rescue pet, stomach bug, thinking about lice makes me itch, throw up germ, vitamin and supplement regimen, what is worse lice or stomach bug